Our vacation (mini)

OK, I did not fall off of the face of the earth, just never seem to find the time to sit down and do this! More posts probably early next week with pics from the Christening (have a baby fair in DC this weekend).

We went on a mini vacation to Lancaster, PA with the girls while Austin was in New York. It was a nice little get away as we did not have a big vacation this summer with Lina's birth and the Christening at the end of the summer, and Don wanted to take me away for my birthday.

Lancaster has lots to offer for both the kids and adults. We went to the Strodsburg Railroad museum, which has a great kids room with lots of hands on train sets for kids to play with - Bell had a blast! Daddy enjoyed the real trains much more, but as the main hall is not air conditioned (and the kids room is!!) and it was 97 degrees that day, we let him spend more time in there than us. It really is a fun place for both kids and adults.

On Saturday we went to the Harley Davidson Factory in York, PA. They give tours of the factory for free, but you must be over 12 yrs old, and wear closed toe shoes. So Don went back to hte hotel to change from his sandals, and Bell climbed up and down on the motorcycles while daddy took the tour. I asked if we could bring the kids if we were wearing them, but they would not let us, oh well.

I think we have created a monster!!

We also went to an Alpaca Farm on Saturday. When I suggested this, Don kind of looked at me weird, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. Bell loves animals, so she had no problem with 10 Alpacas ("pacas" as she calls them) standing over her. They are really pretty neat animals and are raised for their very soft "fiber" as it is called, as well as breeding to sell the animals to others. A husband and wife own the farm and the husband Kevin gave us a really great personal tour (just us, you call up and if they are home, you get a tour!!). Female Alpacas run about $10.000 to buy!! Wow, I was amazed, but their fiber goes for $2.00 an ounce. He actually sells lots of htem as pets he told us. Bell loved it, and Kevin gave her a little Alpaca finger puppet before we left, which she loves - Paca, Paca, she calls it!!

On Sunday we went to the Hands on Childrens Museum in Lancaster. Another good choice. Lots of fun hands on exhibits for the kids, a dress up costume room, which Bell loved, and daddy even had lots of fun with the ball mazes!

The hotel (Holiday Inn of course!!) had an indoor and outdoor pool as well as a mini golf course, so daddy and Bell took advantage of that while Lina and I watched.

All and all, it was a great mini vaca, we packed a lot into two and a half days!

(OK, that took 40 minutes to upload all those pics here, I am off to bed!!)